Despite what my iPhone-enabled friends might think, I don’t actually dislike the iPhone. I have made it very clear that I very much dislike AT&T, and I couldn’t care less how cool the iPhone is, I’m never going back.

The latest crop of smartphones out there on Big Red’s network: the Pre, the Pixi, the Droid (both Eris and Motorola), even my own BlackBerry Storm 2 come close, but cannot quite replicate the iPhone experience. And they certainly have not been able to replicate the runaway success of the iTunes and the App store.

In a classic understatement, a few days ago AT&T itself admitted that it had a problem with “overpenetration of the iPhone into the New York City market.” And what is really intriguing is the growing number of users out there who love their iPhone, but hate AT&T. Even more intruguing is that there are spots on AT&T’s own message boards where iPhone users are bitterly complaining about AT&T’s poor service, where some users are going as far as saying that if an alternative–any alternative–comes along, they’ll jump at it and tell AT&T to go pound sand. Yes, I know that these people can jailbreak their iPhones–and subsequently void their warranty–and switch to T-Mobile or some other GPRS/GSM carrier. But most iPhone users, it seems, aren’t willing.

The latest exclusivity-ending rumor to circulate quotes analysts saying that the iPhone will come to CDMA networks like Verizon’s as early as Summer, and that Apple is arranging its Asian supply chains to include CDMA chips into the mix. I can only hope they’re right. I would love to have an iPhone–if for no other reason than to take the “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” path. But I will never, ever, ever go back to AT&T to do it. Not ever.

I really hope AT&T’s exclusivity stranglehold on the iPhone is, in fact, ending much sooner rather than later. I wouldn’t exactly say that the arrangement is killing Cupertino, but I will go so far as to say that Apple could be selling a lot more iPhones to CDMA subscribers on Sprint and Verizon–when a customer leaves AT&T like a rat leaving a sinking ship,  they have to buy a new iPhone. And a sale is a sale, no matter what; I know apple hasn’t discounted that possibility.

Ultimately, non-exclusivity could work out in everybody’s favor, actually–Cupertino could sell a lot more iPhones, and iPhone users would be spread more evenly throughout all the carriers, leveling out the traffic and relieving their burden–they wouldn’t have to work quite so hard to satisfy their remaining, loyal (albeit misguided) customer base.

I stayed home from work today because I’ve got some kind of bug. I hate these little bugs; usually they’re not bad enough to keep me out of work, but this one has just totally wiped me out. I spent most of the day today unconscious on the sofa.

Butterfly, on the other hand, faced with the same dilemma, chose rather to go to work. God bless her, the trooper. Of course, she’s trying to hire folks for her department and staying home when you have had interviews scheduled for weeks is a bad thing.

If I feel this terrible tomorrow I’ll have no choice but to burn another sick day–and I really don’t want to. Bleargh.

I know this has probably been floating around the Intrawebs for some time, but I still got a really big kick out of it:

I’m pretty sure this very poster was hanging in Capt. Ramsey’s stateroom on the Alabama.

Ooooooooh-ooo-ooo-ooooooooooooh!

Not bad singing on a journal, eh?

My mother-in-law got me a 2010 Sodoku calendar for Christmas. Not having the heart to tell her that the last time I tried to solve a Soduku puzzle I got an almost uncontrollable nosebleed, I bought myself a Jeopardy! calendar instead.It’s pretty neat, with each day’s question having a particular dollar value, lines on it to jot down your weekly winnings, and Final Jeopardy! occurring on Sunday.

It’s kicking my ass!

I used to fancy myself pretty good at Jeopardy, but because this is a desk calendar and not the actual game show, I’ve made a few rules (since the calendar came with none of its own):

• As the only contestant, I am compelled to buzz in and must answer every question.
• I cannot use any “lifelines” (e.g. no googling stuff, or asking co-workers).
• Instead of five seconds to submit an answer, like on the show, I have until I leave work to submit an answer.

Because I must answer every question, the hard ones are killing me. Naturally, they’re worth more, and when I get them right, Jackpot! But when I get them wrong, I almost assuredly end up in the red when I get to Final Jeopardy at the end of the week and have nothing to wager.

I haven’t skipped ahead in the calendar–that would give me an unfair advantage–but I’m wondering if there are Daily Doubles on the holidays. That would be neat.

So here’s my winnings so far:

Week ending 1/3: $1,600
Week ending 1/10: -$3.600
Week ending 1/17: $0

So far, I have no net winnings. Boo.

Guess I’m not going on Jeopardy! anytime soon…

I’m a voracious Engadget reader, so when Barnes and Noble introduced the Nook right before Christmas, I was intrigued. My commute takes up four hours of my day, and since I’d rather carry a gizmo than a bunch of books around (to each their own, right?), I’d been investigating various electronic baubles to do the job.

I’d been looking at the Amazon Kindle 2 for a while, but until now, I hadn’t had the courage to take the plunge–$260 was a lot of dough for me to spend on a doohicky that only read books, and I already have a BlackBerry Storm 2 that–which, when coupled with Mobipocket Reader, lets me read e-books just fine.

Only it’s not as fine as “just fine” could be.

The screen is tiny–even though it’s big for a phone, it’s tiny for an e-book–and staring at it for hours on end resulted in some serious eyestrain for me. After reading Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol on it, I was less than impressed with the whole “e-book on my phone” thing.

So despite Engaget’s optimistic-yet-critical review of the Nook, I went over to Barnes & Noble to check it out.

My impressions:

• The thing was slow. Not just slow, but slooooooooooow. It had to really think about the direction given it by the user–just like Engadget said it did, but I had to see it for myself nonetheless.
• The interface was cool, with the color iPhone-like screen on the bottom and a beautiful E-Ink display on the top. But that lower display is hella bright, and very, very distracting until it shuts off after 30 seconds.
• The foreward to the Nook was written by Dave Barry (whose writing style he obviously stole from Conman). It was hilarious. Favorite line was the opener: “Congratulations on your new Nook! We’re sure it will give you many years of trouble-free enjoyment until next week, when we come out with a newer version.”
• Barnes & Noble’s website did not make it even remotely obvious which of its titles were Nook-friendly and which weren’t. Boo. This is in very stark contrast to Amazon’s Kindle e-book section.

But the real kicker, and why I don’t have a Nook right now? Barnes & Noble are completely out of stock, and they will only start shipping again February 1st. The petulent child in me demanding instant gratification threw a temper tantrum as I dragged it out the door of Barnes & Noble.

But upon further reflection, it gave me an opportunity to sit down and compare–really compare–Amazon’s Kindle 2 to the Nook

Amazon's Kindle 2

Barnes & Noble's Nook

• The Kindle 2 doesn’t have Wi-Fi, like the Nook. But it does have its wireless service provided by Sprint PCS–unlike the Nook, who gets theirs from AT&T. Boo.
• The Kindle 2 has a built-in PDF reader, as does the Nook. But where you have to plug your Nook into your PC with a USB cable and transfer the PDFs manually, you can send PDFs over-the-air to the Kindle 2–just by e-mailing them.
• The Kindle 2’s battery goes about twice the distance of the Nook’s a week as opposed to four days.
• The Kindle 2 is thinner and lighter.
• I like real buttons. The Kindle has them, and the Nook does not.
• The Kindle’s content-buying website is organized a thousands times better than the Nook’s.
• The Kindle will read your books to you via text-to-speech. A kitschy feature, true, and that’s why it’s at the bottom of the list. But it seems cute, and I was disappointed that the Nook didn’t do the same.
• All the reviews said that the Nook still has several major bugs to work out. And after playing with it for an hour, I can tell that it does, too.

In the end, I purchased a Kindle 2, a leather case, and a light. I can’t wait until they get here!

Well, by my wristwatch, it’s about 52 minutes into 2010. Happy New Year!

That would make this the very first journal entry in The Corsair Journal of 2010. Fireworks burst outside as I write this entry, and my head is swimming with a combination of several liquors that I have consumed during the evening’s “festivities.”

As I try to compose this journal entry (I still $#&@*! hate the word blog), it would seem pretty obvious that I’ve made pretty “merry” in the early hours of January 1, 2010. Suffice to say, I didn’t go to any parties. Rather, I stayed home and played board games with my family.

However, despite winning American History Trivial Pursuit (even with a good dose of Smirnoff and Jack coursing through my veins I’m still a trivia whiz; that just goes to show you exactly what a geek I am), I feel I’ve embarrassed myself pretty good.

I’ve always been particularly careful in front of my step-kids, especially considering that their legal father was always considered a fair man with the bottle. While I do not posses the highly-trained liver that my stepkids’ father possesses, I think I hold my booze pretty good. I’ve always been a happy drunk and with liquor in my system, and have a very easy laugh.

I can only hope that with the light of day, and the hangover I have surely earned through the early morning’s activities sequestering me to the master bath, that my wife and stepkids don’t judge me too too harshly.

I want to wish all of my loyal readers a happy 2010. May the new decade bring you much peace, happiness, and success. And may it bring me a hangover cure that wasn’t borne from Southern lore–where I come from, a Pepsi and a Moon Pie is the most tried-and-true hangover cure there is. Well, all I have to ring in the New Year is Caffeine-Free Diet Pepsi, and I don’t have any Moon Pies. I’ll have to go to Publix and grab myself a 12-pack of RC and some Little Debbie Swiss Rolls.

I like reading The Boston Diaries–my friend Conman’s blog (damn, I still hate that word!)–but find that a lot of the more technical information in it is way over my head. This owes largely to the fact that Conman is a highly experienced and very talented programmer and network architect; because I hope to absorb even a tiny bit of his vast network experience, I read all of his articles and exercise my brain muscle.

Conman once told me that he doesn’t necessarily post because his articles are interesting to his readers; rather, his articles are more or less a reference notebook for himself–that just so happens to come in the shape of a Blog. Some people use a Moleskine. Conman uses a Blog. Makes sense. Plus, you can’t Google a Moleskine. Yet.

Sometimes Conman’s more technical entries serve to guide other developers and network administrators, because Comnan is always tackling some very obscure problem or another. Conman also posts his problems, and their subsequent solutions, in very great detail–which is perfect for those who search the vast Intrawebs for the solutions to obscure problems. That Conman writes very well and has a sharp wit is a very big plus.

Anyway, I hope the search spiders pick this article up too, because this problem really drove me bananas until I figured out what was going on.

My home network consists of several PCs and computing devices, representing today’s modern family: A Windows 2003 Server, acting as Domain Controller, serving up files, DNS, and DHCP; a desktop and laptop for me, a family PC in the kitchen, a Wi-Fi laptop for my daughter, and, when he’s home from college, a Wi-Fi laptop for my teenage stepson. Additionally, we have an XBOX 360 for my teenage stepson (when he’s home from college), and a Nintendo Wii for everyone else, both of which connect to the LAN via Wi-Fi. Two recent additions are an old–but serviceable–Dell desktop in the bedroom that is destined to be a home-theater media server,and my BlackBerry Storm 2. Lastly, I have an HP OfficeJet 6500 Wi-Fi all-in-one paper handler to round out the network.

Recently, I switched from AT&T DSL to Comcast Cable Broadband. I used to have a Westell VersaLink Residential DSL gateway/router/Wi-Fi Access Point, but replaced it with my Motorola SurfBoard SB5101 Cable Modem, coupled to a Netgear WGT624 v3 broadband Wi-Fi switching router, which I happened to have from a previous address when I had cable broadband before, downstream.

Netgear WGT624 v3

The WGT624 v3 is a pretty nice little access point; however, the last time I’d employed it, it was in a small apartment, and then only had my desktop wired to it, and my laptop WI-Fi’d to it. My network has grown quite a bit since then.

The VersaLink from AT&T handled everything just fine and then some. It was as customizable as I needed it to be, even when I did fancy stuff like route VNC to my desktop at home so I could use it  remotely. The WGT624 is no different and handles custom routing easily. But the one little gotcha that had me up for two days tearing my hair out was DHCP.

(click here for a newbie’s introduction to DHCP)

The little micro DHCP servers typically found in home broadband routers only serve up three things: IP addresses, gateways and DNS. Because I have a Windows Active Directory domain at home, I prefer to use my own server for DHCP and DNS; this gives me far greater flexibility over stuff like lease times, DNS servers (Windows Active Directory is heavily dependent on DNS, particularly a local DNS server), NTP servers, and WINS servers (yes, I still use WINS; if you use Windows, WINS is a sad fact of life).

On my Westell VersaLink, this was not a problem; I simply disabled its DHCP server and was on my merry way. However, when I attempted the same thing on my WGT624 v3 broadband router,  I exposed a flaw in the unit’s firmware.

Out of the many devices I have on my network, only three are actually wired to it–the rest are all wireless clients. When I sunset my VersaLink and put up the WGT624 in its place, I was careful to keep the SSID, encryption, and passphrase all the same so that I wouldn’t have to run around the house reconfiguring everybody.

While the two wired DHCP client PCs were getting IP address leases from my Windows 2003 DHCP server, none of my wireless clients were.

I tried everything to troubleshoot the problem. I updated the router’s firmware. I turned off wireless encryption. I changed channels. I changed fragmentation thresholds and preamble settings. No matter what I tried, when the WGT624’s internal DHCP server was on, it would pass out addresses to my wireless clients. When it was disabled, none of my wireless clients were getting address leases from my normal DHCP server. If I hard-coded IP information into my wireless clients, they’d work perfectly–which meant that they were connected to the access point just fine. They just weren’t getting an IP address.

It was as if the router were simply not passing the DHCP broadcasts to the rest of the LAN–but that was impossible; this would be the first Wi-Fi access point switch in my years of networking experience that flatly refused to pass along DHCP requests to the rest of the LAN segment.

Out of ideas, I started this thread on the Netgear forums, hoping another Netgear user may have encountered this rather bizarre issue before me.

I finally stumbled across this page on Netgear’s site that has nothing to do with DHCP as it relates to the WGT624, but rather with using the WGT624 as a plain ol’ Wi-Fi access point on an existing Ethernet segment. It says, in little text as a footnote to the article:

DHCP configuration may not work reliably because the wireless router/access point may not correctly relay DHCP information from the router. Workaround: Use static IPs on the wireless PCs.

You’ve got to be kidding.

Then the thread bore fruit: one of the contributors hypothesized with me that it must be an unresolved bug in the firmware.

So rather than fix the problem, Netgear decided rather to fix the WGT624 DHCP problem the military way: “work around it instead of work through it.” What network administrator in their right mind is going to put up with hard-coding IP information for wireless clients!? Especially given how very inexpensive and competitive Wi-Fi access point/broadband routers have become?

Here’s how I solved the problem: I bought a Linksys WRT54G2 Wireless-G Broadband Router. It was less than fifty bucks, and it passes DHCP requests like a champ.

Linksys WRG54G2

Also, as part of the solution, I will consider carefully buying another Netgear product in the future.

I really hope all the search engine spiders pick this up, because as of the date of this writing there is not yet a comprehensive review available for BeeJiveIM 2.0.1 for the BlackBerry Storm.

I’ve been using BeeJiveIM since it was called JiveTalk and used it on my Curve 8330; having one of my brilliant, yet rare, flashes of foresight, I knew that phones in my world are not perennial things and thus I sprung for the $29.99 license (it’s now $14.95) that lets you move JiveTalk, or BeeJiveIM, or whatever the hell they’re calling it these days, from phone to phone. It’s a nice little product that allows the user to connect to all the major IM services with their smartphone: AIM, Yahoo!, Windows Live, Google Talk, even Jabber–a boon for me, as Jabber is our primary method of IM.

THE VERDICT: SAVE YOUR MONEY

I began using BeeJiveIM 2.0.1 on my BlackBerry Storm 2 (with OS 5.0.0.328) a few days ago, following an interminable wait for the product to exit Beta. I used its Beta on my Storm 1, and the Beta was about as abyssmal a product as you can get. For a while there, the Beta for the Storm wasn’t even available for download from beejive.com. I downloaded BeeJiveIM 2.0.1 with a minimum of muss and/or fuss, it installed properly, and I was able to transfer my existing license over to it, all very easily. Sadly, that’s where the party ended.

My impression after a few days? No software product has ever made me want to give my BlackBerry Storm 2 top billing on a segment of Will It Blend? more than BeeJiveIM 2.0.1. The product is so unbelievably bad that I think I would have been far better off simply smearing the phone with my own feces and burying it in peat moss for a month–at least the possibility would exist that something beautiful may grow out of it.

BeeJiveIM 2.0.1 is buggier than a bait store in the Everglades in summertime; in my opinion, the product should never have exited Beta. It has some really nice features that, if they worked, would be fabulous.

But they don’t.

Bug #1: there’s no way to disable those obnoxious buddy icons. On a smartphone, display real estate and processing power are precious, precious commodities and to squander them on making buddy icons display and scroll is inane. Oh sure, there’s a check box in “Preferences” that suggests that BeeJiveIM may stop displaying the buddy icons. But it won’t.

One of my major complaints about BeeJiveIM for the Curve was the fact that it sucked down battery power like a frat boy sucks down Old Milwaukee. I accepted that fact because it was a halfway decent product, but BeeJive IM 2.0.1 is even worse. If you keep it running, talking to the network over EV-DO, your fully-charged battery will be depleted within half a day. Aah, but BeeJive added a fix: The Storm 2 has Wi-Fi capability, and BeeJiveIM can allegedly use the far more battery-conscious Wi-Fi radio to talk.

And it will, too. For about a half hour. After that, any status change will result in connection errors; to change your status, you have to shut down the software and restart it. Boo.

Just about everything I tried to do with BeeJiveIM 2.0.1 made me want to repeatedly smash my Storm against my desk. But I didn’t; it’s not the Storm’s fault that BeeJiveIM 2.0.1 is a horrible product, so I refuse to take my enormous frustration and disappointment out on my Storm. The truth is that there are so many bugs in this product that it is pointless to continue the review, and if I were BeeJive, I would be embarrassed to give this product away–much less charge $15.00 for it.

And why the low price point all of a sudden!? If a user can afford a BlackBerry and the hugely expensive plan that goes with it, they can pony up $30 for a do-all meta-messenger like BeeJiveIM. I plunked down my $30 and was happy to do it. If this product actually worked, my God, it would be a bargain at twice the price. I personally think it’s Apple, once again, ruining the smartphone market for everyone by insisting that developers slave away for peanuts; if you pay $5.00 for an app, you’ll get just that–an app worth $5.00. I also have a sneaky suspicion that BeeJive is pouring its limited resources into the iPhone version, making us BlackBerry users (once again) feel like the ugly girl at the Prom that nobody wants to dance with. But I digress.

BeeJive, if you’re reading this, take this gigantic steaming pile of crap called BeeJiveIM 2.0.1 for the BlackBerry Storm back to the drawing board and don’t come back without a version 3. And make sure everything works this time, mmmmkay?

From this post on the Best of Craigslist. This one was laugh-out-loud, distract your co-workers funny:

Harley rider pre-ride check off list:
1. Comb baseball player goatee and mustache
2. Spend 6+ hours polishing gaudy chrome pieces. Be sure people can read the “Live to Ride–Ride to Live” statement on gas tank lid.
3. Assure suspension can handle at least 560 pounds of rider
4. Pack cell phone and have tow service numbers programmed.
5. perfect the “I’m a Bad-Ass Motherfucker” Harley riding scowl in your rearview mirror (if your Hawg is so equipped).
6. Affix tassels from daughters bicycle to handle bars for added gay appearance.
7. Test flashers for when bike breaks down (99% probability)
8. Put on your wrist brace to help carpal tunnel from all of the unnecessary revving
9. Leather pants
10. Gloves
11. Wrap-around sunglasses
12. Skull cap (German soldier type for the real badasses). Remember to think about the SAFETY aspect/argument of loud pipes, as well as putting that potato chip on your head. The real tough guys here will wear a bandana over their face (some with a skull) to look really scary–ooooh!
13. CAT work boots (new)
14. Leather vest with some “chapter” embroidered on the back, such as “North Chapter of Pig-Fucking Obese Attention Whore Douchebags with Fat Ugly Loud-mouthed Wives”
15. Harley Davidson T-shirt (of course)–because everyone needs to know what shop you paid $40 for a $5 hanes shirt at.
16. Remove baffles from pipes so everyone can hear you going 18mph in 2nd gear at redline (Special note: Most HD motors will break down before hitting 2nd gear and/or redline)
17. Starbucks gift card: This is usually your hangout (how tough).
18. Call friends with similar ridiculous motorcycle (World-War II outdated technology garbage) and pathetic store-bought image (gay pirate from the Castro) attire. Have them attempt to meet you at the Starbucks without breaking down or crashing due to being distracted from looking at themselves in their chrome.
19. Five packs of Marlboro Reds or unfiltered Camels to smoke while riding to look extra-cool.
20. Slam a 6 pack of Zima prior to ride.
21. Saddle bags attached to pick up and store broken parts that fall off bike as you ride/push (if you can call it riding without laughing) that hunk of shit down the road.

I have been a loyal Bellsouth/AT&T DSL subscriber. While I don’t particularly care or AT&T’s wireless service, their DSL high-speed Internet service hasn’t been bad at all. It’s been operating continuously in Casa de Corsair for going on three years now. I’ve only got one problem with the service:

It’s slow.

In truth, it’s not that slow; I get around 6Mbps of download speed, which is more than plenty. However, I only get a paltry 256-512kbps upload. Yes, that’s right. About half a megabit per second data transfer up.

That sucks. Especially when I have to transfer a bunch of large files from home to my office, which I do with some frequency.

Now, being that when I find a service that works, I at least try to stick with it, I  called AT&T Broadband Customer Service and asked if there was any way possible to increase my upload speed.

“Nope,” they said.

Next call: Comcast. I already had a disused Motorola Surfboard SB5101 Cable Modem from a previous stint with Comcast. Their fastest high-speed Internet package: a whopping 12Mbpsdown, plus 2-3Mbps up. And it’s the same price as the DSL I’m currently subscribing to. And that isn’t even their fastest package. Wow.

One problem, though: I’ve had Comcast before at Casa de Pius, and it’s reliability rating always sucked. It’d stay up for a few hours, then go down. Then up again for a day, then go down.

Once again, though, I took the plunge: I ordered their middle-tier package (12 down/2-3 up). $42.95 per month, and $20 for the first six months. Plus, since I already have one of their cable modems, I don’t need a modem rental.

I wired it up. Same $#@^&*! problem. It’d stay up for an hour, then go down for two. Very frustrating. However, I figured it out: the system was miswired. Once I rewired the QnQ cabinet the right way, I’ve had no further difficulty.

So I’m going to try out Comcast High-Speed Internet for a week or two and see what happens.

Butterfly has turned me onto watching The Biggest Loser with her on Tuesday nights; the season finalé of which was on last Tuesday.

For this season, what made the show for me was Abby.

If you follow The Biggest Loser, then you already know the heartbreaking story of Abby Rike. For those who don’t, Abby’s husband, young daughter, and infant son–her entire family–were killed in car crash. Worse, Abby was supposed to be in the van with them.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who has thought what I’m about to write; but every time I see Abby, my heart breaks for her. America, collectively, has asked the same question of Abby: How do you recover from a personal tragedy of such staggering proportion?

For Abby, the answer now is simple: “You choose to.”

Abby uttered the most beautiful, inspirational words in an interview, granted during early filming of The Biggest Loser:

“[Throughout my grieving process,] there are times–where I felt I was walking in molasses.

I took 26,000 steps yesterday. Every one of them was a choice.”

I’m reading back the words I just wrote and they look ridiculous. I wish that I had the eloquence to truly relate how powerful those words are, how foundation-shaking. Abby Rike has endured a tragedy so horrifying and heartbreaking that it completely defies my meager ability to articulate the profound sadness I feel when I hear her talk about it.

Yet Abby Rike chooses to get up, every morning, and face another day without the beautiful family she loved. How on God’s earth she finds the strength every day to choose to do so is a complete mystery to me.

Abby Rike is an inspiration.

I remember why I don’t like commuting via public transit:

It takes forever.

I left my house this morning at 6:45. I got to work at 10:00. Now, granted, had I not gotten on the wrong bus and had to double back, I would have gotten there by 9:00. That’s still two full hours on public transit.

I’ll tell you, though, it’s far better than the way I was doing public transit before. Palm Tran Route 40 to the West Palm Beach Intramodal Transit Station (whew!) is not even a quarter full–unlike Route 62, which is always jam-packed. It also doesn’t do that whole stop-every-200-feet thing to let more people on and off.

I got a whole bunch of e-books for my Storm and enjoyed reading a book (such as it is), for a change during my commute. Heck, I have two hours to fill, after all… I can’t work during all of them…

Wow. Two hours each way. That’s four hours a day, 20 hours a week, roughly 86.5 hours a month, or 1,040 hours a year. Or, 43.3 days.

Just commuting to and from work.

Wow.

Of course, if I drove, my commute is about an 45 minutes. That’s about 390 hours a year, or 16 days.

I decided to start taking Tri-Rail to work again. After crunching the numbers, I still can’t beat Tri-Rail to ease the financial pain of my 80-mile-a-day commute, even though I know that Tri-Rail doesn’t run on time most of the time.

Helping to ease that pain is the fact that Palm Tran just opened a brand-new Park and Ride lot about a mile away from my house, right behind the Fresh Market at The Mall at Wellington Green. This lot serves Palm Tran Route 40,  which goes practically non-stop to the West Palm Beach Tri-Rail Station (now called the West Palm Beach Intramodal Transit Station) in about 35 minutes.

I used to take Route 62 to the Lake Worth station, but I only did that for a few months–there were a couple of very good reasons why I stopped:

• When Tri-Rail updated their schedules about a year ago, Palm Tran did not. Route 62 arrives at the Lake Worth Tri-Rail Station very close to the same time as the trains do. A few minutes little earlier or later by either mode can spell the difference of waiting at the station for up to an hour. A couple of times I’d gotten off the 62 bus at the Lake Worth station just as the Southbound train was pulling away.
• The last westbound Route 62 bus leaves the Lake Worth Tri-Rail station at 6:30pm. Because the bus and train arrive at Lake Worth so close together, If I miss P634 because I have to work a little late, I risk being stranded stranded at the Lake Worth station–Palm Tran 62 and Tri Rail won’t wait for one another.
• I had to ride 62 from its terminus at the Mall at Wellington Green to the Lake Worth Tri-Rail station, which is very close to the other end of its line. It was an obnoxious, bumpy, ride lasting a little less than an hour, and during rush hour it would stop every minute or so. Quite a number of times it was standing-room-only.

Route 40, by contrast, is practiaclly a straight shot to the West Palm Beach Tri-Rail station along Southern Boulevard, a limited-access state road, stopping for passengers only once or twice. The ride is anywhere from 35-40 minutes and arrives about fifteen minutes before the train does, leaving a nice, big buffer for both modes of transit. Plus, the last Route 40 Westbound bus leaves the station at 8:25 pm, reducing the risk of my being stranded. The latest train I’d need to catch is P642 leaving Cypress Creek at 7:14 pm.

Of course, this morning, I got on 40 Westbound and nearly ended up in Belle Glade. Whoops. However, I got off at Palms West Hospital and caught 40 going the other way still made it to work by around 10:00.

After driving to work for the majority of the rainy season, I’d forgotten how nice it was to let someone else do the driving for a change. I slept on the bus. I answered e-mails on the train (thank you, Verizon BroadbandAcces!) . It was a beautiful day, and the trains were running smoothly and on-time.

Here’s hoping it stays that way.

Bobby Bowden, iconic head coach of the Florida State University Seminoles football team, announced that will step down from his head coaching job after this season’s bowl game.

Bowden joined FSU’s football program in 1976 and turned the moribund Seminoles into a college football dynasty. He has 2 national championships, 20 bowl victories, and 315 wins under his belt, rivaling other legendary college coaches such as Bear Bryant and Joe Paterno.

The rivalry between the Seminoles and the University of Miami Hurricanes is equally legendary; while it’s not quite as intense as the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry, it is no less fierce. The rivalry currently sees Miami at the top, 31-23.

Doubtless that losses to the Hurricanes so heartbreaking that the games have received their own names–Wide Right I, Wide Right II, Wide Right III, Wide Left I, and Wide Right IV, all lost by a field goal–will haunt Bowden’s dreams until the end of his days.

Even though I rooted against the ‘Noles, Bowden was nonetheless a legend on the gridiron and worthy of great respect. I hope his retirement is a long and happy one.

Even the title makes me laugh.

I have, at this point, consumed the remainder of my bottle of Jack Daniels (after having consumed a fried fish Po’ Boy earlier), with a healthy dose of Diet Pepsi. I liken that combination to the consummation of a Pan Galactic Gargle  Blaster: about which, the Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy says:

Consuming a Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster is like having your brains smashed out by a piece of lemon wrapped around a large gold brick.

Frankly, I don’t know if I got the quote right, because I’m seriously wasted. Ergo, I don’t much care if I did or didn’t. The point of this exercise is to determine if I can even come up with a coherent journal entry (I hate the word ‘blog’) when I’m very drunk.

I’m hoping I’ll rediscover this little gem during one of those nostalgic romps through my journal that a journaleer often takes when bored or distracted; maybe I’ll be sitting in front of the PC some weekend with nothing to do and read this entry and go ‘Holy %$&*#@!, I wrote that!?’

Anyway, I should get to it.

It’s the day before Thanksgiving, 2009. My Father-in-law, here from the other side of the country, hours earlier has told me something very upsetting (not about my beautiful Butterfly–something else entirely, which I won’t divulge here due to it being inappropriate for a public journal entry), and I’ve spent the vast majority of the day up in our bedroom moping about it. Moping like a little kid. And chastising myself for doing so.

I’ve come to the conclusion that it doesn’t matter, to use another Douglas Adams-ism, a pair of dingo’s kidneys what anybody in the universe thinks of me, the marriage that my beautiful Butterfly and I share, or my ability to be a good husband. This is my second attempt at husbandry. It’s Butterfly’s third attempt at wife-ery. With any luck, it will be our last; we’re both pretty good at it by now, I think, having made most all of the mistakes along the way (separately, of course) that married people do. Thanks to our vast experience, we’ve worked through some pretty serious difficulties with love, caring, compassion, and understanding for one another that many copules in our position would be envious to enjoy. I’d very much like to think that, at long last, I have finally found my soul-mate, and she, hers.

I seem to have suffered the onslaught of in-laws that one is always forced to endure come holiday-time. And it is with a mighty slurp of the last of my Double Jack-and-Diet-Pepsi (heh–doubtless my second-line manager, a subscriber to my Facebook page [to which The Corsair Journal is cross-posted] is positively cringing at the mention that I have imbibed such a horrid concoction) that I share with you that I have dived, naiive and ill-prepared, into the waters that are my in-laws (I’m going to think that line is so damn corny when I’m sober).

Honestly, if one dares to put their private thoughts in a public space, then one should be thoroughly prepared to share with anyone who stumbles across those thoughts their state of mind when those thoughts were conveyed to the medium from which they were henceforth absorbed.

So let me ’splain. No, ees too much; let me sum up:

Butterfly’s previous husband, prior to me, will be convicted in the coming weeks in Federal court on charges of operating a Madoff-esque Ponzi schheme. Butterfly’s brother, cajoled by Butterfly’s ex into becoming a salesman for the “company,” is now–at the behest of the FBI and SEC–testifying against him, in exchange for a reduced sentence. Butterfly’s brother has not yet been remanded to Federal custody, but my in-laws fear he likely will be immediately following a sentencing hearing on Tuesday the 1st. Butterfly’s brother’s sentence, while not nearly as hefty as Butterfly’s ex’s (largely owing to both his reduced role in the alleged crimes as well as his cooperation with the Feds), will nonetheless be pretty substantial–in the several-years range.

Worse, Butterfly’s brother will be leaving behind a wife and very young son while he serves his time. And right now, the family has no idea where, or for exactly how long, that time will be served. The latter will be revealed at the hearing. The former, despite a request to serve sentence at FCI Miami, is really anybody’s guess.

Butterfly, naturally, is not feeling particularly wonderful about the fact that her brother’s association with her ex has had the unintended consequence of costing her brother his freedom.

It makes one’s head swim, if one were to think about it hard enough. It’s like a scene pulled from some absurd nightmare that even Danté wouldn’t buy tickets to.

So it seems that this is the last Thanksgiving (or major holiday of any kind, for that matter) that Butterfly, her brother, his wife and child, his Dad, Mom, nieces and nephews (and me, the lone in-law in this equation) will all get to spend together for who-knows how long. Butterfly’s Dad, hailing from the other side of the country, is staying here at our place until the hearing on Tuesday, and I couldn’t have been more happy to host him–that is, until today.

Naturally, there’s a little pressure associated with this situation (I do have a gift for understatement); and, due to it, Butterfly’s Dad–by his own admission, a crotchety old fart (his words, not mine)–said something to me earlier today that really, really caught me completely off guard and upset me very greatly.

Exactly what he said is not important. My job, given the circumstances, is to keep the peace. I’m fully cognizant of the gravity of this situation and I refuse to let some childish hurt feelings spoil what, as I have said earlier, could be the last family Thanksgiving dinner this family will enjoy together for G-d-only knows how long. I can’t control what he said, or how bad it stung, or how unfair I think it is that I feel I’m being punished for the transgressions of the man that Butterfly was married to before me. This is not about me.

This is about a family who is hurting because they are about to lose someone they love, for a long time. All I can do is support my Butterfly while that happens.

—

My beautiful Butterfly is lying next to me right now, deep in blissful slumber, as I write this rambling treatise. She loves me just as much as I love her–and for that love I am more grateful than one can imagine; I think she knows how proud I am of her, and she has made abundantly clear how proud she is of me. We cling to one another though the great goings-on that take place around us.

My place is clear. My duty is clear.

And maybe this entry, despite the pretenses under which it started, has turned out more lucid than I thought it would.

Engadget is reporting that the wireless carrier war is really heating up, with AT&T firing right back at Verizon (after their legal request for an injunction on Verizon’s commercials was denied!):

C’mon, really, AT&T? Really? You have roughly 1/4 the 3G coverage of Verizon and all you can say is your 3G coverage is faster? Really? That’s like saying your car can totally smoke any other car out there–but only runs on a quarter of the roads. And here’s a little news flash for you: UMTS and HSDPA may be faster than EV-DO rev. A, but it ain’t that much faster–and besides, the way you’ve implemented it, it’s actually slower. Munch on that. Oh–and did I mention EV-DO rev. A is available across ALL of Verizon’s network–not just in “select markets?”

So you have the iPhone–big deal. What good is a smartphone if it keeps dropping from 3G to EDGE to No Data right in the middle of Downtown Chicago and New York, as a number of iPhone users are reporting?

At least you’re answering back Verizon issue-for-issue. But I still can’t imagine what good it is having the fastest 3G network when I can’t make or receive a voice call while standing in my living room, I drop a call halfway through, or when every piece of electronics in a ten-foot radius goes nuts from interference when my phone actually does decide to ring a call through.

Pretty weak, guys. Pretty weak.

Again, instead of hiring camera crews, washed-up actors, and renting abandoned warehouse space to film nanny-nanny-boo-boo commercials, perhaps that money would be better-spent upgrading your ancient network.

…but my feed, with richer content (such as the YouTube videos I embed) is also available on the web:

http://www.thecorsairjournal.com

…as well as an RSS feed:

http://www.thecorsairjournal.com/feed/

I just read another infuriating article in the Wall Street Journal singing the same old tune: Some corporate IT user is bitching against e-mail quotas, blocked websites, the inability to install his own apps, and the aging workhorse that is Windows XP.

And as an IT manager, you know what I have to say to that?

Tough shit, jocko.

We IT types get reamed from both sides of the house. It’s an argument as old as commerce itself: Management wants to spend as little on IT as humanly possible. The user community wants shiny new toys every week. The two are not compatible with one another. And the most fun happens when the user community goes to management with their laundry-list of grievances: “Waaah! The network is too slow! Waaah! We want unlimited e-mail server space to store every piece of SPAM we’ve ever received since 1994! Waaah!  We want unfettered access to the whole open Internet! Waaah! We want a 9,000GHz Octouple-Core laptop with a 90″ screen and 500gb of RAM and a 60tb drive so we can write letters faster in Word!” Then Management comes down on the IT department asking why all the users are so damn unhappy.

I happen to be pretty lucky at my job: while we get don’t always get new technology at brisk pace, it’s not a snail’s pace. And I’m lucky enough to be working with really, really smart people who are intelligent enough to know that you’re not supposed to be surfing Porn at work and that there ain’t no such thing as a “free” app on the Internet, so I don’t have to spend all my time being a mommy to an office full of recalcitrant children.

For the rest of you: Here’s a simple FAQ as to why the waaaaambulance hasn’t showed up at your desk with every little stupid IT request you asked for:

Q: Waaaah! Why can’t I have more e-mail storage space?
A: Because while disk is cheap, the boxes that the disk goes into is not. And because we don’t have a SAN (storage area network), we can’t just throw more disk in it on the fly. We have to plan disk upgrades into e-mail’s maintenance cycle and that means taking down the mail server for a few hours. Oh, did I mention that despite our repeated requests, management didn’t spring for a redundanr cluster that would keep one mail server up at all times while we worked on another to actually do these kinds of upgrades without disruption? So here’s my advice to you, bucko: Clean out your damn inbox and archive your mail locally. Trust me, it ain’t that hard, especially if you use Outlook.

Q: Waaah! There’s a laptop at Office Depot that has eleventy million times the specs that mine has! Faster processor! More disk! More memory! Bigger screen! Why can’t I have it!?
A: Because we’re a [insert manufacturer here] shop, and all of our technology purchases have to o through our corporate account so we can get corporate pricing. That laptop at Office Depot costs 10-25% more at Office Depot than what we can get it for. That’s why the purchase has to go through channels. And I asked your manager if you could have one like it the last ten times you submitted the request. He said no this time too, because it’s too expensive–and yelling at me ain’t gonna change that. Better luck asking Santa Claus. And besides–you’re making PowerPoint slides and Word documents–not curing cancer or decoding the human genome. Your current laptop is just fine. Deal with it.

Q: Waaah! I wanna surf the whole Internet! Why won’t you let me surf Myspace or Facebook or girlswith[BEEEEEEEP]intheir[BEEEEEEEP].com!?
A: Because Myspace is still the 25-dollar heroin-junkie hooker of the Web, frought with malware and spyware attack redirects. You think your PC is slow now? Wait’ll it gets infected and becones a zombie attached to some botnet, participating in DDoS attacks, SPAMming, and Kiddie-Porn storage (I swear I’m NOT making that one up–want proof? Here it is). Do that shit on your PC, in your own home, on your own time–not the company’s. I’m sick of re-imaging your goddamn PC. This is the third time this week.

Q: Waaah! I wanna install all my own programs! Why won’t you make me an administrator of my own machine so I can do that!?
A: See the previous question. Who the hell knows what you’ll install if given free reign on your box? The Internet is full of bad people just itching to take over a corporate machine, steal its data, and steal the bandwidth of the company network to do bad things.

Q: Waaah! Windows XP is old! I want a new, modenr operating system like Vista!
A: Well, you’re actually in luck there. Windows 7 is out, which is actually better than Vista, and isn’t the bloated pig that Vista was. I run Windows 7 on a Dell D610 at home, with a single-core 1.7GHz P4M, 2gb of RAM, and a 60gb hard drive-pretty modest by today’s standards, and so far it has done everything I’ve asked it to do. But I don’t know whether you realize this or not, but VISTA DIDN’T WORK! It was a big, bloated, buggy, DRM-filled, horrific steaming pile of dog shit. But don’t you worry. We’re doing compatibility testing on Windows 7 right now, and we’ll have an image available for rollout in a few months. BUT: That’s only if I can get Management to spring for the licenses, to the tune of $179.99 per computer. We need Windows 7 Enterprise, you see.

In summary: I’m sick to death of reading these hyperventilating articles from frustrated users bitching about their IT department. They haven’t the foggiest ideas that we in IT are no less frustrated, caught on the one side with having no budget to work with and on the other consisting of hoardes of screaming, dissatisfied users. IT is a hard job. If you think it’s so easy, you do it.

At the end of the day, the IT policy we make is directly dependent on the company policy that comes down from the upper echelons–and my loyalty is to the people who sign my checks, NOT to you. I’ve been tasked to keep our employees productive, our IT assets safe and accounted for, and give you the tools you require to do your job–no more, no less.

If you don’t like it, well, that’s just tough.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I don’t hate the iPhone. but I loathe AT&T, and I loathe them because their service totally stinks. Butterfly and her kids had AT&T phones when we met, and I counted down the seconds until her contract was up and I could bring them all over to Verizon with me–About half the calls between she and I were marred by interference and outright drops, and she couldn’t get a signal on her phone in our living room–she was constantly missing calls. Even text messages sometimes wouldn’t be delivered for days at a time. When she or I send texts even today to AT&T customers, that still happens, albeit less frequently. But it still happens.

Now I really hate AT&T.

I’ve been reading for days about their legal response to Verizon’s new spate of “There’s a map for that” ads:

…and the conclusion I can draw? Someone better call a waaaaaaaaambulance for AT&T. Not only does their voice network stink, but their 3G data network is seriously outdated and hasn’t nearly kept up with its ambitious smartphone offerings–iPhone included.

And now the war is getting even uglier. Verizon has fired right back at the lawsuit–not only doubling up on its “There’s a map for that” ads (including some hilarious Christmas-themed ones), but now Engadget is reporting that Verizon’s legal team has fired a response to AT&T’s legal team–one drafted from the ground up for publication.

AT&T did not file this lawsuit because Verizon’s “There’s A Map For That” advertisements are untrue; AT&T sued because Verizon’s ads are true and the truth hurts.

In the final analysis, AT&T seeks emergency relief because Verizon’s side-by-side, apples-to-apples comparison of its own 3G coverage with AT&T’s confirms what the marketplace has been saying for months: AT&T failed to invest adequately in the necessary infrastructure to expand its 3G coverage to support its growth in smartphone business, and the usefulness of its service to smartphone users has suffered accordingly.

Yup. The truth sure does hurt, AT&T.

Lastly, Engadget published this great editorial that debunks all the myths surrounding AT&T’s and Verizon’s data networks once and for all–and is required reading for anybody following this.

I’ll echo the sentiment of the above editorial–as well as many of the folks watching this fight with interest: Hey AT&T, instead of spending untold zillions on corporate lawyers, think maybe you outght to invest that money into, I dunno, improving your network? Maybe? Huh? Whaddaya say?

Conman, author of The Boston Diaries, and I have very different ways of looking at the world; countless debates between us, on a variety of subjects, have revealed that simple truth time and again. Yet a debate whose effects have not quite seem to have faded are the debate which Conman has entitled ‘Tool vs. Crutch,’ the primary crux of which attempts to answer a seemingly simple question: “When does technology cease being a tool and become a crutch?”  The series of entries in The Boston Diaries has been labeled by Conman “Tool vs. Crutch.”

What sparked this debate was my salvo of heated arguments (1, 2) on the subject of GPS usage. I love my GPS receiver, Conman decidedly does not, and if you want to know the reasons why, read the 1 and 2 links above–I will not delve once again into that topic here. It will suffice to say that it seems that we are as diametrically opposed on this particular subject as two people can be.

I’ve always been told that only a fool takes up a fool’s argument. I believe that to a certain extent, but Conman is a gifted programmer with an intensely keen intellect, and for those gifts I hold him in the highest respect–Conman is absolutely no fool. The part of this debate that rubs me entirely the wrong way is this: for a person who works with technology, who makes his living manipulating it supporting those who also use it to make their living, Conman is decidedly anti-technology and has, over the years, has developed a singular distrust of it. Perhaps because he is so gifted at manipulating it he is keenly aware how easily it can be manipulated and perverted. I don’t know. This is not an entry about the manipulation of technology, or even of Conman’s distrust of it. This is about “Tools vs. Crutch,” and about the fundamentally philosophic debate it sparks.

The problem with the “Tool vs. Crutch” is a fundamental one, one that is so large that Conman has overlooked it. And I can’t blame him, either: to find the fundamental problem with “Tools vs. Crutch” is like examining an elephant with a microscope. The premise of the question itself is fatally flawed. The problem with “When does a tool become a crutch” is the very nebulous nature of what constitutes a “crutch.”

I think what is missing here is the definitions of “tool” and “crutch.” The meaning of “tool” is extremely well-defined and clear. Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary states a number of definitions for the word “tool,” and those that aren’t vulgar or slang are remarkably similar: they all relate to things that are used to perform tasks. “Tool” is not subject to arbitrary or subjective meanings–its meaning is very clearly defined.

“Crutch” has as nebulous a definition in this context as “tool” does not. Oh sure, the meaning of the term “crutch,” as defined by Merriam-Webster, simply indicates “something that props up something else.”

But propping up what? Aah, there’s where the philosophy of the question rears its ugly head.

You see, it is very easy to apply the “crutch” label to any tool. Any one of them. By the definition that Conman seems to like to employ in his arguments, a “crutch” is defined as “a tool, but not a tool that is necessarily required to achieve the same result as can be expected through the employ of one’s natural faculties.”

Getting closer to the root of the argument, let’s define “tool” as “any thing that enables one to accomplish a task that ones naturally-possessed faculties are insufficient to accomplish when employed alone.” It is reasonable to conclude, therefore, that a tool certainly allows one to do a job that is not possible without it.

As a concrete example, I will use perhaps the simplest and most quintessential tool in all the toolbox: the humble hammer.

A hammer.

Now we’ll move on to a more nebulous concept: the automobile as a tool. And this is where I’m going to totally get Conman.

Conman has a 2000 Chevrolet Lumina LS sitting in his driveway (perhaps at this very minute). Any time Comnan desires, he can hop into it and drive to any destination with a road leading up to it his willpower and resources will allow.

Conman's 2000 Chevrolet Lumina LS

But let’s examine why Conman would want to employ his car in the first place: Last time I saw Conman, he was possessed of a two working legs, at least one working eye, and all the other organic “glue” that has made the assembly that is Conman capable of self-locomotion. These are all the tools Conman really needs to also get to any destination with a road leading up to it that his willpower and resources will allow, also.

Why, then is a car even necessary? Seems to me, that when filtered through the definitions established above, that the car is just one big giant “crutch.”

Has Conman forgotten how to walk? no. Does he have any medical conditions that would prevent him from walking anywhere? Not to my knowledge. And if you asked Conman, “What is your car: tool or crutch?” He would likely answer “crutch.” But when asked if he would ever give up his car, throw away the keys, and never drive it again, I’m sure the answer would be a firm and resounding “No.”

But why? If your car truly is a crutch, and you have other means to get to the same places you want to go without a car, then why have one?

Could it be that the car truly is a tool after all? Could it be that for all of Conman’s protestations, the car is a necessary element of out highly-evolved, complicated lives nowadays, just as indispensable to living an independent life as the ability to drill a nail into a piece of wood?

Everything is relative.

Without a car, Conman cannot earn his living without becoming a burden to others; his job requires that he be certain places at certain times and in reasonable shape to work. Walking everywhere, therefore, is no longer sufficient to live the lifestyle to which he has obligated himself, and therefore, I would argue that his Lumina is just as indispensable a tool to Conman as the hammer is to a carpenter.

And right there is the nebulous nature of the word “crutch.” It would be far more accurate to say that a crutch is relative to the needs and commitments of the person depending on it. A crutch to you is an indispensable tool to me.

To further his stance in his “tool vs. Crutch” debate, this entry in The Boston Diaries references a short story by Isaac Asimov called The Feeling of Power about a society that has become so dependent upon machines to do basic tasks that those in power have lost the ability to do simple arithmetic–and then subsequently marvel at one “savant” who still possesses the ability to do so. I personally think it is an insulting, condescending piece of literature; not one of Asimov’s best works. But The Feeling of Power does highlight one of Conman’s greatest fears: that we as a society have grown so dependent upon the technology we have swaddled ourselves in that we would all wither and die if it were turned off this afternoon, never to be turned on again.

And I sincerely believe that this fear, more than anything else, is at the very heart of the “Tool vs. Crutch” debate. It can be the only explanation why Conman would journal about it for more entries than I’ve seen him journal about anything else.

Too late, Conman, we’re already very heavily dependent upon our technology for a comfortable existence.

It’s funny; I’m reminded of the terror sparked by the Y2K bug that the whole world would be thrown into chaos and anarchy on 1/1/2000. And let’s say all things technological really did go to Hell in a hand-basket on 1/1/2000. Would it have been an uncomfortable shifting of humanity’s priorities and comfort levels, Yes, definitely. Would we have all survived? I submit to you that despite being uncomfortable for a while, the vast majority of us would have.

I’m not going to take credit for yanking Conman’s worldview out from under him, or shaking him to his very foundations to render him so self-introspective. I’m just going to carry on using my GPS. I used it twice yesterday. I’ll continue to use it as long as I don’t know where something is, and I won’t ask myself why, or whether it’s a tool or a crutch.

Because we have GPS doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten how to use a map and compass. Because we have microwaves and pre-made frozen dinners doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten how to cook. Because we have supermarkets doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten how to hunt and farm. Because we have cars doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten how to walk. Nor will we ever forget how to do any of these things. And of all of these things went away tomorrow, we humans still have our eyes and ears, our hands and legs, and our keen intellect to ensure that we do not perish.

So seriously, the “Tools vs. Crutch” argument is an interesting diversion, but nothing more.

Look around you. Everything is a crutch.

And y’know what? Who cares?

Even if it were all turned off tomorrow, we’ll all be just fine.