Going Google

I've been a Mac for about five years now. It was a great transition for me, and I embraced Mac OS X rather quickly. I never thought I would say this, but I might be shifting my Mac loyalties. No, I'm not going back to Windows. I have to use windows at work and often at school, which is often enough to keep me away in my personal life. My loyalties are shifting towards Google.

Five years ago, Google wasn't even thought of as a contender in the computer platform market. It was mainly Windows and Macintosh, with a few Linux users. As of now, Google still doesn't have an operating system for home computer use, but they have entered the mobile computing market with their Android Operating system for mobile phones. Everyone is a big fan. Me, I would gladly get an Android enabled phone, except for one thing. I'm a Mac. Why would a Mac ever prefer a non-apple phone over the iPhone. Because the said Mac uses all of Google's services and they aren't easily compatible with the iPhone OS. I use Google Calendar, Google Docs, Gmail, and Google Voice. The only one that is readily available to be used on the iPhone is Gmail. In fact, Apple has even gone as far as blocking Google Voice and Google AdMob which is responsible for making many of the apps on Apple's app store free. Fewer free apps, unusable services, this is a problem for anyone who has gone Google.

I went Google about 6 months ago. I have had my Gmail account for years, and my blog for a while too, but I only recently began using Google Calendar, Docs, and Voice. It was also then that I realized that I wouldn't be able to use these services as easily in any iPod touch or iPhone. Bummer. Hopefully Google will keep fighting to make their services available despite Apple's attempts to block them, but we'll see. If Apple keeps up their stubborn proprietary bologna I won't remain a Mac for whole lot longer. I think I might go Google. I wonder how those cute Apple commercials will change when Mac has to face an even hipper and more versatile Googlized PC.

Will people stop hating the Islamic community?

Someone I know sent me an email today about how evil and horrible Muslims are. It was typical bashing and I wasn't a big fan. I get so frustrated by ignorant people. The main point of the email was to point out that there are 1.2 billion Muslims and only 14 million Jews, yet the Jews have received more Nobel Prizes than Muslims and are therefore better. Here are a few samples of some of the things that the email said, which by extension, he said:

"The [Muslims are]... promoting brain washing children in military training camps, teaching them how to blow themselves up and cause maximum deaths of Jews and other non Muslims.

"The [Muslims] hijack planes, or kill athletes at the Olympics, or blow themselves up in German restaurants."

This is the response I sent to his forwarded message:

[Mr.______],

If all 1.2 billion Muslims truly did teach all their children to hijack planes and blow themselves up, don't you think that the world would be destroyed by now. That is 4 times the US population. That means that if every Muslim really does want to kill everyone else, there wouldn't be a force big enough to stop it. Why don't you stop sending these emails that don't make any sense? I agree that the Jews deserve more respect than they are given, but so do the Muslims. Al-Qaeda is suspected of having 500-1000 people according to wikipedia. Even if there were 100 times as many, it would be less than 0.0001% of the Muslims in the world! Why do all of the Muslims get labeled as evil, when the ones who want to hurt others are at most less than a millionth of a percent of the worlds population?

Please think about what you send before you send it out to everyone.

Thanks,

Barch