Player Haters

Greetings,

Now, if you know me well, you may know I hate tech player haters. You probably don't know me well, so I'll tell you: I hate player haters. Don't know what a player hater is? Not sure what type of player hater I hate (in case you're one of them)? I hate the type of player haters that hate on Apple just because it's popular. You may hear these player haters saying something like,

"I hate the iPod. I think they're so stupid. This Player from Obscure Company is less powerful and less feature-rich, but it's better because the iPod is popular."

This type of player hater has issues with "following the crowd," and they scapegoat popular things even though it has nothing to do with the player at all. Now, I'm not saying that the iPod is a perfect device. It certainly has hardware and software merits, but there are things I don't like about it and there are other devices just as good (or better). I'll talk about that some other time. A player hater may also be heard saying something like,

"Screw the Google Nexus One. Who cares? It's so expensive! You can get an iPhone 3GS for cheaper."

Well, actually, unsubsidized, the iPhone is a lot more expensive. Mind you, it's a couple months older, but the "cheaper" assessment is based on subsidized pricing and not outright payment. (I'm from Canada, so you'd have to buy it unlocked and unsubsidized if you wanted to use it on the future Wind Mobile network.)

Another nitpick is the comments against Wind Mobile that go to the tune of,

"How hard is it to switch frequencies? I can't bring my phone over, but how hard is it for them to just use the frequency of a Rogers phone so I don't have to buy a new one?"

Bro, the frequency is different because that's the spectrum that they bought. Ugh. (Maybe I should point these things out at the source so that it doesn't bother me or well up inside.) Either way, I'm going to keep maintaining this blog.

The point is that you can't discredit anything just on one point. I like how my Analog Electronics prof put it (I'm paraphrasing):

"In design, you have to consider a solution to the problem as a multi-dimensional optimization problem."

That means you have to consider all aspects before making a judgement. You have to find the best balance of all parameters before you can say, "Yes, this $999, solar-powered, LED-backlit pencil sharpener is right for me." Most importantly, you have to continually ask yourself, "Is this the right fit for me?" What good is a device if it doesn't fit you? I'm not gonna buy my grandparents a Twitterpeek.

Bah! That is all. Bottom line:

• Multi-dimensional optimization problem
• Is this the right fit for me?
• Stop player hating

Also, I hated English in school. I can't believe I'm doing it in my free time.